Fovea is a small area of the retina that affords acute central vision. The verb “foveate” means to direct an eye so that the fovea is directed at an object within the field of view. In this document, “foveation” and related inflectional morphemes of “fovea” generally refer to an imager's ability to provide zooming into an area of a scene, without losing the overall contextual information afforded by the larger view of the scene. Foveation is useful in many applications. For example, increasing demands on the warfighter for situational awareness may benefit from optical imaging techniques that enable gathering of information over large fields of view, and simultaneous rapid zooming into selected areas of the field of view.
Interest in foveated imaging has increased because of emerging military applications that include imaging for missiles, overhead surveillance based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), land-based surveillance for unattended sensors/motes and robotics, as well as laser pointing and designating. In addition, panoramic (e.g., 360°) threat detection systems, artificial vision systems, collision avoidance imaging systems, horizon tracking-capable system, border fence security systems, and submarine periscopes may benefit from inclusion or addition of foveation features.
Known foveated systems generally use gimbals (moving lens groups mechanically) and/or incorporate multiple cameras. Such systems may be expensive in terms of economic cost, power, weight, and size. They may also suffer from situational awareness issues. For example, they may not be able to provide the whole scene and the foveated image at the same time, or provide real-time multiple target tracking.
It is therefore desirable to provide wide field of view single- and multi-spectral imaging and vision methods and systems with foveation. It is desirable to provide such systems with lower costs, lower size, lower weight, and/or lower power consumption. It is also desirable to combine imaging systems with FSO communication systems.